Evening Update 14 Feb

French Riviera local news

Robbery - Police are hunting a man, who carried out an armed robbery at a petrol station in Frejus this morning. The incident happened at the Total petrol station when the hooded man, armed with a swan-off shotgun, held staff at gun-point, before making off with a number of hundred euro.

Court - The case continues today of Jacques Cassandri, the self-proclaimed brains behind one of the biggest bank robberies ever, forty years ago in Nice. Although, time has expired to charge him with the robbery itself, prosecutors are charging him with money laundering, and today are focusing on land deals made in Corsia, which involve a former town mayor and an Irish property developer.

Accident - A man in his seventies is recovering after being run over with his dog, at a pedestrian crossing in Cagnes-sur-mer. The incident happened near the Electric Café, and afterwards the man refused to be transported to hospital.

School - The Minster of Education has officially announced significant changes to the Baccalaureate, including and oral and four written exams, which will make up 60% of the final mark. The majority of the remaining 40% will come from continuous monitoring. The core curriculum for the baccalaureate includes French, Philosophy, History & Geography, Moral & Civic Education, two modern languages, sport, and a new discipline called Scientific and Digital Humanities.

Rap - A rapper, known as the French Eminem, is facing calls to be stripped of the country's top musical awards, for sexist and degrading lyrics in one of his older songs. A petition, with over 25,000 signatures, is demanding that the Culture Minister strip him of the awards, over his 2006 song, "Saint Valentine", for which he was convicted of inciting violence against women, a conviction which was recently overturned.

BUSINESS

The economy across the European Union grew at its fastest pace in a decade last year. Figures from Eurostat show the EU expanded by 2.5% in 2017, its strongest performance since 2007. The best performing countries in the final quarter of last year, included France and Germany, with 0.6% growth, just slightly behind Spain’s 0.7%

US inflation rose faster than expected in January, stoking fears that rises in interest rates will accelerate this year. America’s Consumer Price Index grew by 0.5%, against economists' forecasts of a 0.3%. Earlier this month, a report showing increasing US wage growth, also raised concerns that the Federal Reserve will have to raise interest rates, triggering days of volatility on the financial markets.

SPORT

At the Winter Olympics, love is in the air, as two American figure skaters sealed their routine with a full St Valentine’s Day kiss. The pair, who have skated together since 2012, married two years ago.

Canadian short track speed skater Kim Boutin has received online threats and abuse, after winning a bronze medal in Tuesday's 500m final. She took third place after a South Korean athlete was disqualified for interfering, and since then, the Canadian has been forced to block her social media accounts after abuse from angry Korean fans.

Meanwhile, the Jamaican women's bobsleigh debut is in doubt, after their coach quit and threatened to withdraw use of the team's sled. German Sandra Kiri.asis, an ex-Olympic champion, claims she was forced out, when her role was changed and that she is legally responsible for the sled. She is demanding payment for it but the Jamaica Bobsleigh Federation declined and is disputing that she owns it.

Day Six of the games continues tonight with events including snowboarding, alpine skiing and figure skating.

Football - The referee at last weekends Nice Dijon match, who gave a yellow card to Mario Balotelli, claims he did not hear the racist chants the player complained to him about. In a statement he said if he had heard cries of monkeys, as indicated in the request of OGC Nice, he would not have at any time issued a warning to Balotelli. Meanwhile, two sports associations have expressed their concern about the silence or indifference of the management of Dijon in condemning the racist taunts by Dijon fans.